The Broken Lands

They brought in big earth movers
And dug a scar in the rich brown earth
Where once had stood a bright red barn,
A pasture for cows, and before that
A virgin forest where deer and bear roamed
Now
Upturned land
Rows and rows of metal pipe
Were nested in the trench
Covered over
And left
Soon natural gas will flow underground
A poison in a pipe, hopefully to stay
Contained in its vessel
But the land itself will never be the same.